Connor Tomshack, left; his brother Kyle, second from left; and sister Kaity, right, pose with Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood at the Main Street Soda Grill in Vermilion. The children's father, Mike Tomshack, owns the Main Street Soda Grill.
SPECIAL TO THE MORNING JOURNAL

Country music stars Trisha Yearwood, left, and Garth Brooks, right, with Vickie Dyke, second from left, and Susan Wells in Vermilion.
SPECIAL TO THE MORNING JOURNAL

VERMILION -- My search for two country music superstars started around 9:45 p.m. Thursday with a trip to the Holiday Inn Express on SR 60 in Vermilion Township. My colleague, Heather Chapin-Fowler, and I searched the halls, knocked on doors, even poked our heads into the pool room, where the people thought we were nuts when we asked this question: Have you seen Garth Brooks?

That's right, Garth Brooks, the cowboy-hat-wearing, flannel-shirt-sporting, hunky country singer, and his wife, singer Trisha Yearwood, were spotted earlier that day in Vermilion.

We were unsuccessful in our search. We surprised a lot of people who probably thought we were playing a practical joke. But we knew we were on to something when the hotel clerk gave us a "deer in the headlights" look when we asked her.

"Oh," she said in a startled voice. Then she began to stutter, "N-no, we don't have anybody here by that name."

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Still, we thought maybe we had gotten a bum steer.

Until yesterday, when my editor found a day-old tweet on Twitter that said "Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood were in Vermilion today at the Soda Grill!!!" And off I went again.

My first stop was at the Main Street Soda Grill on Liberty Avenue, a homey little burger and milkshake joint at the center of downtown. This was Brooks' and Yearwood's dinner destination Thursday.

Waitress Amy Defilippo didn't realize it was Brooks, at first, because he wasn't wearing his signature cowboy hat.

"I was excited, but I was in disbelief," Defilippo said. "But when I saw him signing autographs, I thought, 'This is true!'"

Defilippo kept her distance from Brooks because other people were crowding around him. However, one person who didn't hesitate to talk was her brother and restaurant owner Mike Tomshack. He even got his three children to pose with Brooks and Yearwood for a photo.

"He was a very down-to-earth guy," Tomshack said. "He wasn't even flustered when people found out who he was and asked for photos and autographs."

Tomshack wasn't on duty when the couple came into the restaurant, and when his sister texted him, he thought she was crazy. But he said he would have recognized him in a second, since he is a fan of both.

"My favorite Garth Brooks song is 'The Dance,'" Mike said. "His song 'Pina Coladas' is a classic. My favorite Trisha song is actually a cover of Reba McEntire's 'You Lie.'"

Vickie Dyke, owner of Varsity Town USA on Liberty Avenue, said one of Brooks' daughters said the family was in town visiting his oldest daughter, Taylor, a student at Texas A&M. Last year, a story in The Morning Journal said the shipwreck research center at the Great Lakes Historical Museum in Vermilion was exploring two mid-1800s shipwrecks with nautical archaeology students at Texas A&M.

Christopher Gillcrist, executive director of the Great Lakes Historical Society, told me the society respects the privacy of its friends, and in doing so could not comment.

Tomshack mentioned he saw Brooks carrying a bag from Brummer's Chocolate on Main Street.

I knew where my search would take me next.

The woman at the counter in Brummer's sighed when I asked her if she saw Garth Brooks the day before.

"Yes," she said in a disappointed tone of voice. "I waited on him and I didn't even know who he was until he left." She took me to the back of the store where Sandy Brummer was making chocolate confections.

Brummer said Brooks and Yearwood were perusing the store for a half-hour Thursday. They walked out with a half -ound of malted milk balls, a half-pound of chocolate almonds, a bag of gummy bears and a bag of cinnamon bears.

"When he got the malted milk balls, Trisha asked him, 'Is that going to be enough? I'm going to be sharing these,'" Brummer laughingly recalled. "I didn't know it was him either, and I saw him keep smiling at me. He was probably thrilled because no one in here knew who he was so he could just be himself."

Vermilion Chamber of Commerce President Pam Cooper had a big grin on her face when Brummer mentioned Cooper had gotten his autograph.

"He was a very nice man," Cooper said. "I welcomed him and thanked him for coming to our city."

"Garth Brooks is amazing," swooned Dyke. "He came into the store and I didn't even know because there was mayhem in the store at the time."

She walked right up to Brooks' middle daughter, August, and asked her where she was from. August told her Oklahoma, which didn't trigger anything in Dyke's mind until teenager Max Quinn came in and told her Garth Brooks was in town.

Max and his mother, Nancy Quinn, had heard from a man on the street that Brooks and Yearwood were around, and tried to find him. The superstar couple walked out of Swan Creek Candle as the Quinns walked in.

"I had no clue that was them," Nancy Quinn said. "They were incognito."

When the Quinns learned Brooks and Yearwood were eating at the Soda Grill, they made their way over with Dyke.

Max wanted to get their autographs, but they had just been served their food, so his mother told him they would come back after country stars finished eating. When Yearwood over heard, she said, "It's OK," and smiled. Max got his autograph, his mother said.

Dyke said she leaned over and told Brooks, "You're the biggest thing to happen in Vermilion."

From there, Brooks and Yearwood signed a slew of autographs and smiled for pictures. Several people said he was the nicest guy and actually took the time to learn their names. He also shook everyone's hand.

Right before they were getting ready to leave, Dyke ran into her store and grabbed a shirt for August.

"I was standing there wonder what size Garth wears, what size Trisha wears, and then I just thought, 'I'll give a shirt to their daughter!'"

Dyke said Yearwood and Brooks left town after lunch yesterday, at International Tastees Cafe, by the way.

So, while I didn't get to meet the family, I must say it was fun following in the country-crooning duo's, down-home footsteps.